Mobile city department unveils new flag disposal box

Keep Mobile Beautiful, a city department, started a new American flag disposal program on June 14, 2013, at the Metro Recycling Center on Government Street. The program allows the public to fold worn out flags, place them in plastic bags and bring to them the Recycling Center's "Flag Recovery Box." The box is an old post office mail box decorated in red, white and blue. (John Sharp/jsharp@al.com)

MOBILE, Alabama – Bob Haskins was driving through Georgia
with his wife when he spotted something that he thought would be a good way to
fill a void in Mobile.

"I saw a similar mailbox up there with a sign that said, 'drop
flags here,'" Haskins, director of Keep Mobile Beautiful, a city department,
said. "When my mother and father passed away, they had an old flag for years on
their house and I thought, 'we need to get rid of that flag.'"

Haskins contacted an acquaintance at the post office and was
able to obtain an old mailbox. From there, he got it wrapped in red, white and
blue by Sign Pro of Mobile.

"There have been a lot of ways to dispose of your flag
properly such as taking it to your Boy Scouts or American Legion," Haskins
said. "We wanted to do something here at the recycling center. More people will
dispose of their flags properly."

The demonstration occurred on Flag Day, a national holiday that
commemorates the adoptions of U.S. flag, which occurred June 14, 1777.

"Traditionally on Flag Day, there is not a
lot going on," Haskins said. "We thought what better day to do this than on
Flag Day, our national day to respect our flags."

The recovery box will be permanently located
inside the recycling center after today. Flags that are disposed into the box
will be presented to Woodmen of the World of Semmes, which will then properly
dispose of them. The group holds regular flag burning ceremonies.

"This is something that has been lacking in
the Mobile area," said Clayton Ratledge, board president with Keep Mobile
Beautiful and the operations manager with the Downtown Mobile Alliance. "There
is no place to go to respectfully dispose of the flag. We have that here now in
a central location."

Mobile City Councilman John Williams credited
Keep Mobile Beautiful for embracing a creative way for people to dispose of
flags.

"I believe it's another one of those things
that people will see that Keep Mobile Beautiful is doing the right thing," he
said.